Saving and Catching
by bloodydisaster
Summary: "Hi" he said, "you knocked me out again". Jinx didn't know how to respond to that. What else was she supposed to have done? Jinx and Kid Flash in a cage. AU of season 5. Rated T because I find Madame Rouge really scary.


**AN: So, I guess this is set in an AU of the last season. The Titans are a bit better at catching the bad guys, and as such villains are feeling a little more hunted than usual. Also, the Brotherhood of Evil has some ground rules on how to deal with heroes, including a "dibs" rule, which I doubt exists in canon. **

**This could also be called the one where I'm kind of lazy, since I basically skipped the beginning and went straight to Jinx and Kid Flash in a cage. What happened to get them there should hopefully be discernible from the text, but if not there's a summary at the bottom.**

**I haven't written anything in a while, so I'll blame mistakes on being out of practice.**

Jinx didn't know how far she could trust her internal clock in a room without windows, but it seemed to her that a couple of hours must have passed when Kid Flash finally regained consciousness.

In the intervening time, she had somewhat succeeded in keeping herself entertained. She had calculated the number of tiles in the room, followed by counting them to check if she had been right. Then she had tried meditating, which evolved into a game of testing how long she could sit still enough to keep the surrounding bars from activating. Occasionally, she focused on Kid Flash, alternating between thoughts of vengeance and worry. She invented new insults to hurl at him, messed with his stupid hair and surreptitiously checked him for injuries. Mostly, she had been pacing the cage, measuring it to be about 8 feet wide on all sides and pointedly ignoring the buzzing the bars made, every time her movements activated the electric field.

Kid Flash's awakening was unexpectedly quiet. He made a sound somewhere between a grunt and a sigh and blinked a couple of times. Even more surprising, he stayed still where Jinx had left him lying on his back, and merely tilted his head in her direction when he noticed her. The small movement made the bars buzz with electricity.

"Hi" he said, "you knocked me out again".

Jinx didn't know how to respond to that. She had been wondering how many more hits it would take before he broke bones, when he had practically crawled to her side. He had leaned on her, gasping that he just needed a minute, as if Jinx was a safe place. Behind him Madame Rouge had purposefully walked towards them with a cold smile, while Kid Flash pressed his head against Jinx's shoulder.

_What else was I supposed to do?_ Jinx thought, but was saved trying to explain his stupidity, when Kid Flash made a thoughtful sound and continued:

"But you couldn't have used a frying pan this time, I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if you were carrying one. Actually, I think I'll be wary of you with any kind of heavy objects in the future." He smiled.

Jinx lifted her hand, ignored the bars activating, and called a hex to her hand. "I'm not wearing a power inhibitor anymore. I don't need heavy objects."

"Pretty," Kid Flash said, looking at her glowing hand, "I think I prefer it that way anyway, with the frying pan I woke up with a nasty bump on my head." He nodded to himself, then stilled when the electric field buzzed. He looked suspiciously at the bars when they stopped after a few seconds, then he wriggled his hand, activating them again, and made a face. "Why do they that? Bad wiring?"

"To save power, they only activate when we move." Jinx rocked slightly forward to demonstrate. "Are you fast enough to get through without being zapped?"

"Usually yeah, easily. But right now I will need to eat something," he didn't give Jinx time to comment but immediately continued: "Why are they saving power? ... Are supervillains worried about global warming? Saving the polar bears one cage at a time?"

"This is one of the Brotherhood of Evil's main bases; it's supposed to be secret. You wouldn't think of it since you're an idiot, but a hero with a brain might take a look at the place with the huge electricity bill." Jinx hissed.

"I think I sense some hostility." Kid Flash said and moved so he was lying on his side, now ignoring the buzzing bars as well. "Despite my apparent lack of brains, I managed to find you here, didn't I?"

"_Despite_ your lack of brains?" Jinx said in disbelief. "You followed me into the Brotherhood of Evil's secret base without any back-up!"

"Alright, I probably should have told someone where I was going. Clearly, not one of my brightest decisions. But when I knew where you were, I couldn't just leave you here." he said and shrugged as if that explained it all.

"That makes it okay? I really can't understand your insane good guy logic here. You'd rather risk your life, than let one minor supervillain get away?"

"No," Kid Flash said frowning, "that's not how it was at all."

"Yes it is!" Jinx interrupted, desperately wanting him to understand the level of his recklessness. "She was going to kill you. Even after I'd knocked you out. You were already neutralized, but she didn't care at all, wouldn't stop. She nearly attacked me when I wouldn't hand you over." Her voice almost cracked on the last sentence and Jinx quieted abruptly.

"So you stopped Madame Rouge. And I assume that's why you're in the cage with me?" Kid Flash asked, taking the news with an infuriating lack of surprise.

Jinx made and unintelligible sound that might have been distantly related to a hiss, and stalked as far away from him as the cage allowed, which admittedly wasn't very far.

"You've ruined everything, you do realize that right!?" Jinx asked angrily. "Before this I was practically a rising star in supervillainy, and this place was my dream. Right until _you_ decided to follow me here. " Jinx waved her now glowing hands wildly, barely noticing the resulting crack in the floor tiles. "If you hadn't come and provoked Madame Rouge I would have been perfect here, the best junior member they'd ever had, but this is going to destroy my reputation forever. Now I'll never get anywhere in the Brotherhood of Evil!"

"Jinx" Kid Flash interrupted "If I hadn't come for you, there would have been something else. Eventually they would have crossed some other line, or another reckless idiot would get in their way. I just sped up the process for you, so you didn't waste your time on these losers, or became too involved to get out again. You don't still want to stay here now, knowing this is how they work, do you?"

Kid Flash's stomach suddenly rumbled loudly, causing him to pause and look down himself. Jinx blinked in surprise as he laughed shortly before continuing, still studying his own stomach.

"The Brotherhood of Evil are completely ruthless and you're so much better than them. That's why I was reckless and followed you immediately, instead of looking for back-up … or food, which I clearly shouldn't have skipped."

Jinx stared at him, a realization slowly dawning as he sniggered and wrapped and arm around his stomach. It was completely ridiculous, which was why she hadn't thought of it until now, but then he was foolish. She had proved that when she had managed to knock him out the first time, escaping official Titan custody while a power inhibitor effectively blocked her hexes.

"You came to get me away from here. You were afraid they would corrupt me." Jinx said, amazed.

He simply nodded, looking confused at the need to clarify as his stomach noisily rumbled again. Jinx stared at him some more, stunned.

Kid Flash had tracked her when she escaped, and upon discovering she had gone to the Brotherhood of Evil, he had followed her into their base. Not because he had felt a great need to recapture her, as she had assumed, but because they were bad people and he thought he needed to get her away from them. In his insane hero logic, Jinx realized dazed, he had come to _save_ her.

"You do remember that I'm a bad guy right? That that was why I wore the handcuffs, when Robin asked you to watch me?"

"No really? I thought you were knocking me unconscious and fleeing the building because you were shy," Kid Flash deadpanned, closing his eyes and shifting on the floor as if to get comfortable. "What's your point?"

"I'm a villainess, not some damsel in distress."

"Who says you can't be both?" Kid Flash said and smiled at her, his eyes still closed. "Do you think there's some malicious reason that the cage has stopped activating, or was that your doing, when you ruined the floor?"

Aggravated that she hadn't noticed the sudden quiet, and at his very obvious change of subject, Jinx huffed and belatedly looked to the bars. Touching the now nonresponsive metal, she tried to remember the last time they'd buzzed. She turned to the cracks in the floor feeling vaguely guilty. This was very probably her doing.

"Might be me. You have certainly been annoying enough to cause this."

Kid Flash snorted. "You mean charming," he said, "or mind-blowingly handsome."

"I really didn't" Jinx said, turning back to study his prone form. He was on his side, eyes closed, hair still a mess from Jinx's earlier frustrations, an arm wrapped around his middle and his body curled up slightly, as if he were guarding his empty stomach.

He had come here to _save_ her from the Brotherhood of Evil.

"You still can't get out can you? Even without the electricity you're too worn out."

"Yeah." he agreed simply, "Food."

He really looked rather pathetic. Had ever since he woke up actually, but some unacknowledged part of Jinx had been expecting him to get better after a while.

"Gosh, my hero," Jinx said, trying to cover her growing worry. "Your dashing heroics might make me swoon."

He breathed out a laugh, but otherwise didn't respond.

She clasped a hand over her chest, and was about to continue with _be still my trembling heart_, when she heard the door opening. She spun around and relaxed slightly upon recognizing the figure in the doorway.

"Gizmo," she exhaled a little relieved, "why are you here?"

"You broke the camera." Gizmo grumbled, pointing at a corner of the ceiling. "They thought I might have some experience in Jinx-proofing tech."

He didn't. Short-lived things like produce or cut flowers were often affected by her continued proximity, but technology were never attacked unless she actively used her powers or had some kind of outburst. In that case, there really weren't anything to do. You couldn't proof your technology against bad luck.

"And the cage?" Jinx asked, leaning against the bars.

"They turned that off themselves, when they realized you might break it. I was told not to bother with it right now, as he can't get through anyway. Did you knock him out again?" he asked, grinning.

Jinx followed his gaze to Kid Flash, who turned out to be surprisingly good at feigning sleep. It would probably have fooled her too, if she hadn't just spent hours with the genuine article.

"No, he fell asleep by himself. But I was very tempted."

Gizmo reached through the bars and patted her awkwardly on the knee. This was odd in itself, but he also kept avoiding her eyes. Jinx tensed slightly.

"Gizmo, why did you come?"

He could easily have lied about the Jinx-proofing for his own benefit; to impress the Brotherhood of Evil, to appear more useful to them or simply as an excuse to get his hands on their tech. But he had gone to the cage, to her, instead of to the corner with the camera, which meant he wanted something the camera shouldn't tape.

"I think you should give him up to Madame Rouge." He said, his eyes firmly fixed on her hip.

Jinx exhaled slowly, thinking.

"Why?"

"He isn't really yours is he? You knocked him out, but it was Madame Rouge who'd done all the work before. She's the one who'd worn him out, done all the heavy lifting. I know the rule says the person who neutralizes them gets the first pick, but it's kind of unfair when you only gave the one hit. It's against the spirit of the thing."

"The spirit doesn't matter, you follow rules to the letter, and the letter says the knock-out counts." Jinx should know; ignoring the spirit of the rules was how Madame Rouge had gotten her into the cage too. "But you don't really care about the rules. What's the real reason?"

Gizmo breathed out slowly, squared his shoulders and lifted his eyes to her face.

"He's going to die anyway Jinx. They decided it would be too much trouble containing him if he eats again, so they're not going to bother. With his metabolism that won't take long, you probably won't even feel much yourself before it's over."

"What?" Jinx stared at him in shock "They can't do that."

"It's not against the dibs rule, since they're not actively doing anything to either of you." Gizmo made a pained face and shrugged, "There's nothing to do. You might as well turn him over to Madame Rouge before you get more trouble for this."

"What? No!" Jinx stepped back from the bars in surprise at the suggestion.

"Jinx," Gizmo said sounding exasperated, "you can't do anything here, there's no point in continuing to piss them of for his sake."

"I'm not turning him over Gizmo! She'll kill him!"

"He'll die anyway." Gizmo pointed out.

"They can't do that! That's…" Jinx shook her head violently "This is crossing a line!"

"We're villains, sometimes people get hurt." Gizmo shrugged again, avoiding her eyes. "You can't control everything, and if we didn't get rid of the people that got in our way, we would never get anything done."

"This is not the same thing at all! We hurt people if we can't get around them. This is completely unnecessary! They could easily keep him contained; they could just drug the food or use a proper cage!" Jinx hissed, grabbing the bars.

"If we're too afraid of hurting people to do anything, we wouldn't be any better than the goody-two shoes…"

"Would you stop quoting Hive Academy bullshit at me!? I always knew it better than you anyway!" Jinx yelled

"Yeah? Well, you seem to have forgotten some of it! People get hurt, sometimes somebody dies!" Gizmo yelled back "That's how supervillainy works!"

His voice bounced of the walls of the room, and they both stood staring at each other, short of breath as the words echoed back.

Jinx leaned forward slowly until her forehead touched the cold metal.

"Sometimes we hurt people, but they only die when we completely lose control of the situation. This isn't that. This is crossing a line Gizmo. We don't kill people because we're too lazy to keep them alive."

Gizmo looked at her and breathed heavily several times before he gave a miniscule nod. Then he made a pained expression and shook his head.

"I'm not betraying them just for a moral principle, Jinx." He said. "The Titans are getting better at catching us, and the Brotherhood of Evil has the best hiding spots."

"Yeah," Jinx breathed "I know." She smiled and reached through the bars to squeeze his shoulder. "If they caught you, they would take away all your toys and you would go mad from boredom."

"Probably," he grinned "and it would be worst for them when I broke out."

Jinx nodded and touched his temple with a hex. Gizmo's eyes widened comically before he crumbled to the floor. Jinx stood, inspecting her old teammate's unconscious form for a second, then she tightened her grip on the bars and watched as the metal rusted and dissolved.

"I'm sorry" Kid Flash said. Jinx turned to see that he had raised himself on his elbows and was watching her. "For ruining everything." He elaborated.

He still looked completely pathetic. Jinx wondered how long they had been in the cage. How long it had been since he ate anything.

"I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing it because this place is beneath me."

He smiled at her as if she'd just personally saved a basket full of kittens. "It really is." He agreed, his whole face lighting up. Jinx's stomach twisted oddly and she felt compelled to look away. She pointedly ignored the compulsion and crossed her arms.

"If I help you out of here, I want amnesty from the Titans for at least two weeks."

"I can't promise anything on behalf of the others…"

"one month then, if it's just you." Jinx interrupted and uncrossed her arms.

"Jinx, I'm not promising you that either." He sounded amused.

"One month is nothing!" Jinx said incredulously.

"You can't really expect me to ignore it if you're breaking the law. What if you decide to spend the month breaking into pet stores, so you can torture puppies? You believe I'll just stand by and do nothing while baby animals suffer?" Kid Flash said, clearly enjoying the idea.

"You're ridiculous." She answered annoyed. "Alright, if you catch me abusing animals you get to bring me in." she promised, halfheartedly hoping that joining the absurdity would help.

"That doesn't really fix the problem. Adorable as they are, the baby animals were just an example. For all I know you might prefer robbing nuns."

Yeah, he was definitely enjoying this too much, Jinx thought.

"Or, I could save you your moral scruples and just leave you here." she hissed, losing her patience. "I just told you this had nothing to do with you. I'm breaking out for my own sake, not because I like you. If …"

"Ah, but you do like me." Kid Flash said smirking.

"…If you don't give me anything in return, I could easily leave you to fend for yourself." Jinx continued, speaking over him.

He didn't stop smiling and simply looked at her for a second. They both knew she wasn't going to leave him with the Brotherhood of Evil. Jinx felt distinctly grateful when he moved on without contradicting her obvious lie.

"What were you planning on doing with your month, Jinx?" Kid Flash asked, finally sounding serious.

"Getting away. Making plans." Jinx answered, poking Gizmo lightly with her foot. "They might send some kind of retribution, if they're not too busy dealing with your friends. And I'm losing some connections here, so I need to figure a way around that. It would be nice to get a head start on that without having you guys bothering me too." She bended down over Gizmo's limp body and started going through his pockets. "That is, when I'm not too busy torturing nuns, of course."

"Well, obviously." Kid Flash agreed. "If that's what you're doing, I have a counteroffer. In exchange for helping me out of here, I'll convince the others to lower your priority, and I won't try to catch you until you break the law again."

Jinx paused her search and looked up at him.

"You get your head start, and I get to step in if you abuse any puppies." he said. "And this is easily better than your one month, since it can last much longer than that if you want."

Jinx considered his words silently before patting Gizmo's last pocket and straightening

"What about the other Titans?" she asked

"I'll do my best to convince them you're not a danger right now, and if any of them go after you, I won't help them in any way."

"Until I break the law again." Jinx clarified.

"Until you break the law." He repeated. "But it's completely up to you how long that is. Could be indefinitely, if you want."

"Don't push it." She said. Then she sighed and nodded.

"It's a deal." Jinx opened her hands, showing the selection she'd found on Gizmo. "Hard candy or gum?"

"You're awesome." Kid Flash said honestly. "Give me both."

**What happened before: **

**The efficient Titans managed to catch Jinx, and wisely put a power inhibitor/handcuff on her, to hinder her escape, but were called away before they could store her properly. Not so wisely, Robin asked Kid Flash to watch her. Kid Flash and Jinx bonded a bit (read: flirted), before he ill-advisedly brought her to the kitchen so he could cook something. Jinx proceeded to knock him unconscious with a frying pan, flee the building and contact Gizmo, who told her the way to the Brotherhood of Evil's secret base. The bad guys kindly removed the power inhibitor, and all was good for the several minutes it took Kid Flash to locate Jinx. All hell broke loose. Madame Rouge beat the shit out of Kid Flash, resulting in him basically crawling into Jinx's lap for cover. Jinx proceeded to knock him out again. Upon realizing that Madame Rouge wasn't planning on stopping, Jinx claimed the dibs-rule and refused to hand him over. Discovering that Jinx could not be intimidated into changing her mind (and that her hexes made it more trouble than it was worth to outright attack her) Madame Rouge threw both of them in a cage, telling Jinx she would stay there until she gave up Kid Flash.**


End file.
